


Nine of Swords

by AlyssumFlowers



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:20:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyssumFlowers/pseuds/AlyssumFlowers
Summary: a drabble from my original-verse; posted mainly for easy sharing.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Nine of Swords

**Author's Note:**

> This probably doesn't need to be marked mature, but better safe than sorry (especially if I ever add more). Let me know if you find any spelling, grammar, punctuation, or formatting errors; thanks.

She picks her path through the dark forest, castle behind her and sky-high perimeter wall ahead. Sensible shoes sensibly avoiding the traps, tricks, strings, and branches she knows too well. Any snap could be the last. Eyes on the prize; she watches the wall, drawn to it like a magnet, as if it’ll disappear if she looks away for too long. Picking her way in the dark, so concerned with her feet and the trees and not alerting anyone or any _thing_ , she doesn’t see him until too late. A large shadow blocks the path before her. 

Black as the obsidian she’d left inside, thick skin and muscles she couldn’t possibly see but imagines anyway, a statue of a man that isn’t either. It- not him- may be human-shaped, but she knows better; the energy swirling in front of her is just taking the form that makes the most sense to her. Had he been a man, he wouldn’t have been here to begin with.  _ Had _ he been there before she saw him? Just as likely either way; that was the whole reason she wasn’t supposed to be here. Sightless eyes carved into a face that isn’t there turn toward her slowly as if it’s only just now noticing her. She’d have snorted and rolled her eyes at that if she wasn’t already frozen like a rabbit before the hawk. Unavoidable; whatever-it-was clearly was a higher level than she’d dealt with yet. Unfinished training can only get you so far. 

A younger version of herself, knowing less and fearing more, would have gulped; a normal person would have. But she’d picked her path; she’d known the price, that this was a possibility. Not what she was looking for, but this would do. She feels that barest hint of a smirk creep across its not-face as if she had already acquiesced to the question it hadn’t yet asked. Nothing even bought, but paying for her choices anyway. 

A flash of color interrupts; an unwanted savior collides with the rude shadow. She snarls at them both and runs. No need to avoid alarms now, as their clashing awakens them all. Demons and monsters screech around her as the forest wakes up. She’s Sensitive enough to feel the light and living warmth of more foolish heroes-in-training and their elder counterparts rushing towards the fray.

Anger; she hadn’t wanted to die yet, but she’d known it was a possibility. She couldn’t have saved herself from that demon, knew that, and didn’t want to die that way. But she wanted to be saved even less. Better to die suffering the consequences of her own actions, than to have them undermined. She will not thank the meddler for what she never asked for; she will not apologize for what she does not regret. She ducks under blade, teeth, talon, and branch; she dives left, right, and center to pick her way through the forest-turned-battlefield. Eyes on the prize. The wall looms closer, stretches above her head.

So close, so close, and then wrenched back. She knew she'd avoided them all: every. single. trap. Not a scratch, not a scrape, not a single blow. She'd avoided them all and picked her path carefully through the dark forest, black as pitch. There was no reason for it. She could not have stepped wrong.

But she felt it anyway, thick and pliable and hard like iron wrapped in cotton, wrapping itself around her waist, her abdomen, her chest. It took seconds, but she felt each inch of frustration as she was snatched. All her progress gone, pulled all the way back to that same damned spot, and tossed onto her back on the ground. She could feel the bruises that hadn't yet formed on her hips, down her spine; the sharp points of her shoulders and collarbone smacked into the hard dirt with the entire weight of her and the full force of all the distance she had run. All the progress she had made crashed back into her. 

She couldn't help the useless, automatic reaction of trying to blink the blur away. She didn't need to see more than the barest hint of the silhouette looming over her to know it was the same damned one that had blocked her way prior. Every inch of her tensed in a silent scream; the shadow inched closer like it was fighting its way through molasses to get to her.

Had she any room left for any other emotion, she might almost have been glad she  _ couldn't _ see when those same damn colors saved her again. And then she did, unfortunately, regain sight enough to see the fool she recognized all too well looming over the demon as it shrunk into the object at his feet. She scrambled upright with quiet frustrated noises, lest he get any more bad ideas about helping her further.

What words he spoke she did ignore, in one ear and out the other, through the air and over the head, side-stepped. She didn’t want even his words to touch her. But while the fool prattled on, she eyed the object and quietly slipped it into a pocket. Her decisions were hers. She would face her own consequences. She would pick her own path through the dark forest.

One last glance over her shoulder, a glimpse of the high wall and the sun rising just beyond it. She sighs- her last hesitation before acquiescing- and follows the foolish hero back to the castle now ahead, leaving the wall behind. One step forward, five steps back. One leap to freedom, dragged right back. She'd pick her path more carefully next time, she thought through the drone of her foolish hero, as she fingered the object in her pocket, which warms at her touch.  


\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  


"Why were you alone in the arena last night?" Soothing tone: patient, concerned. Damn well knows the answer, but gently trying to coax from her lips some truth, honesty, feeling.

She tries for a blank stare, but unfounded anger and hatred burn in her eyes, melting brown by inches into red. 

"Were you trying to run away again?" 

Her nose wrinkles; the heat in her face is suddenly too much. Scratching the tip of her nose, rubbing, pushing it back and forth to make that crackling noise. Totally natural, not hiding or avoiding the question; she would never. 

"You know you're free to go out the front door whenever you'd like. We're a school; a place of learning, not a prison. You don't have to stay if you don't want to." 

Any anger left fizzles out like fire doused with water. Her face turns down and away; rubbing her right cheek with her left thumb, up along the ridge of her eye, back down the edge of her jaw, chasing the tingles under her skin.

A sigh across from her. "I'm here, you know. We all are." A hand close enough to touch, but hesitant, asking her permission. 

She freezes. One. _Breathe._ In, nostrils flare. Two, three. Jaw clenches. _Breathe_. Out; four, five. 

Another sigh and the hand falls away.

**Author's Note:**

> “This card has a lot to do with someone's mind and their doubts and pain. ... it can be about real or imagined doubts or pain, just as dreams can be about real or imagined parts of our life. ... Above the person lies their fears, hanging above them in an airy or dreamy way; this can be represented through demons, devils or even a heavily agitated night sky. Often there are sharp objects such as swords or knives, representing that a persons [sic] fears may pierce or stab through them.”
> 
> “If this card is shown in an upright position, it can mean deception, premonitions and bad dreams, suffering and depression, cruelty, disappointment, violence, loss and scandal. However, all of these may be overcome through faith and calculated inaction. ... This card can represent being plagued by fear, guilt, doubt, and worries that are to a large extent, unfounded. Chances are the person in question is dealing with a problematic situation or a difficult decision, but his or her worst fear is unlikely to materialize.”
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_of_Swords


End file.
